I dated a girl once who turned out to be waaay into this crap. When the festival came to town and she wanted me to go with her, I called and left a message on her answering machine, "Uhhh. Megan, this is Mike. I just got fired from AAI so I'm gonna go to the Tetons and Rockies for a couple months. I'll call you when I get back."
I didn't call back (but I climbed a lot of great routes, thanks AAI).